Having the site down allowed for a tremendous amount of "backend" work to be done (a more thorough IT explanation in the next post). For those not familiar with that side of things, an analogy would be that we were constantly maintaining, patching and repairing a crumbling building. The last few days enabled the old building to be demolished, new foundations laid, materials tested and then assembled.

Now, we can, without constant distraction, paint the rooms, fill them with furniture and then put the signs up.

- Major - In the rarest of cases, a user may not be able to register or login. [see this thread for solutions]

Missing Avatars, Pics or Attachments in Posts

There are a few uploaded attachments (pics, .xlx files etc) and avatars that might be missing in some posts from the last month. If you were the author of one of the posts, please re-upload them if possible.

Sample Bug Report
1. Have you tried pressing F5 on your browser? Y
2. Have you tried logging out and back into the site? Y
3. Does the problem appear in all browsers, or just one, even after refreshing the browser (usually with F5 key)? All browsers
4. If just one browser is the problem, what version is it and what device are you using? N/A
5. Can you attach a screenshot/s of the problem? Not necessary
6. Please describe the problem with as much detail as you can: I am sick of the green colour!

Gold Skin / Style Status
Gold members, before the re-build, had access to what will be the new style of the site and know it is a huge leap from the green one seen here
The Gold skin is a style we've created by highly modifying an existing premium theme. To re-build it for phpBB 3.2.0 will take a little work, so, rather than holding things up here, we'll do that on a test site. We'll keep you posted in the Gold Members forum* of where we are up to and where the test site is once ready for an initial look.
Thanks for your support,
Pat
* Note that, at time of writing, the Gold Members forum is blue/grey. What you are seeing there is the unmodified premium style.
Like to Become a Gold Member?
We'd like that too! There's lots of different ways you can become a Gold Member as can be seen here. However, if you're short on time, gets you straight in the door!
Walk in now!

1. Have you tried pressing F5 on your browser? Y
2. Have you tried logging out and back into the site? Y
3. Does the problem appear in all browsers, or just one, even after refreshing the browser (usually with F5 key)? Chrome
4. If just one browser is the problem, what version is it and what device are you using? Galaxy Edge 7
5. Can you attach a screenshot/s of the problem?
Bottom of page showing html tags.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Some people are like slinkies. Not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Preamble: Anyone else noticed the site is running very quickly now, much faster than it has ever done?

IT Update

Re the email issue: I did a tremendous amount of study last night and today and discovered I am not completely stupid . In fact, that studying and what I had to do during the re-build confirmed many things that just didn't feel right (I'll ramble on that below).

Found a lot of DNS setttings that just weren't right, same with Apache settings etc. If you are in IT, which I am not, you'll know that many DNS settings have a long TTL or take some time to propogate. I've corrected settings on a spare domain to make sure my corrections were right. They worked but took the domain down for an hour or more so I'm trying a trick with biabrewer.info that should, hopefully result in no downtime.

I'm going to let the "trick" work for a few days until things propagate before I correct what I think is wrong with the email settings.

The Ramble
In medicine (not sure if this is a world-wide term or just in Australia), we have what is called a "General Practitioner." Not many people know this, but, a GP is actually a specialist; they specialise in the general knowledge of medicine and can efficiently determine the most efficient treatment/solution of a medical problem. That will either be them fixing the problem themselves or recognising that the problem requires a different type of specialist. The best GP's will also prevent problems.

General Practitioners are, obviously, the basic necessity in a medical system. Without them, the medical system would be ridiculously inefficient. For example, if you had a sore throat, you might have to go to an oncologist, an ENT specialist (ear, nose and throat specialist), an immunologist, a pathologist, dentist etc before finding the solution.

I sincerely believe other industries/disciplines need general practitioners.

Lack of GP's in Brewing

I haven't written this up yet in the What's Happening to BIABrewer in 2017 thread yet (ironically due to a lack of IT GP's) however, BIABrewer.info will close and be replaced with BREWER.info

Confining the information and knowledge we have here just to brewers who use a single method of making sweet liquor is a waste - way too specialised. We BIAB brewers know it is a truly excellent method but all it does is make sweet liquor. Making sweet liquor is just one part of making beer and it is one that isn't even necessary to brew craft beer at home. For example, with a good "Fresh Wort Kit (a term not widely known, all a home craft brewer need do is ferment.

Is it better that a home craft brewer Google; First Wort Hopping, all-grain, three-vessel brewing, BIAB, single-vessel brewing, extract brewing, partial brewing, kit brewing, fresh wort kits, no-chill, kit and kilo, fermenting, hops and God knows how many other things, or, do we lay it out neatly and clearly in one place?

My goal is for BREWER.info to be the GP of brewing - the high quality General Practitioner.

Lack of GP's in IT

If there was a GP in IT, BREWER.info would have been up and running months and thousands of dollars ago. (I won't say how much but way, way, over not including rent, living expenses, lost income etc., in just the last 8 months).

Like when I started in brewing, there wasn't anywhere or anyone that said, "This is what you should do." Much worse though than in brewing, there was no one to warn the patient (me) that there are no GP's in this game and that it could cost months and thousands before you find your cure. And, the cure always seemed a few weeks away. (Ask Sarah how many times I said, or, we thought, "should be up and running in three weeks." )

Anyway, now I know a little (or a lot) about html, css, bootstrap, javascript, php, phpBB, DNS, puTTy, fileZilla, linux commands (special mention to rsync which I only found two days ago) permissions, .conf's, apache, postfix, MX, /var/www/public.html (no idea of the logic of that one!) and about a thousand other things I should have never had to learn.

That is a big cost to everyone - existing members, new brewers and the most loyal members.

Summing it Up

I hope the above makes a bit of sense. Today, Tuesday, is the end of a 20 hour day for me. My last 20 hour day was Sunday and Saturday and Friday weren't too lenient either .

I'm embarrassed that the new site is taking so long to appear and I hope the ramble above gives a little glimpse into why.

Most of all I can't wait to write up the new stuff. Whether a new or really experienced brewer, you are going to love it!

Pat - You have undertaken enormous tasks. Not just the incorporation of lots of brewing info beyond BIAB, but the whole IT battle. You deserve admiration from all as you reach the finish. Hang in there

Well, there are plenty of people who think they are GP's in brewing and/or IT. Then, upon closer inspection ... are incompetent boobs (which doesn't seem to prevent them from giving terrible advice). I don't see that too much on here, which is likely why I stick around.

Looking forward to the new site, which sounds very worth the hard work. Well done!

I consider myself a bit specialized ... because it would probably take me a lot of reading to pull off a three vessel brew. You'll never find me giving diagnosis outside of BIAB, but I certainly plan to learn more about the other methods once we get going.

Definitely agree about the lack of GPs in the two subjects you mention.

I am an IT guy, but nowhere near a GP. I know a bit about some of the stuff you mentioned, but I deal with networks almost exclusively. I'm no stranger to DNS tho And same with brewing, know enough about BIAB to make a decent brew, but wouldn't necessarily call myself an expert BIABer and certainly not in other methods - so yeah, I would have to agree.

Perhaps the issue is that there is just too much subject matter in both of these fields for any one person to be an expert that can cover the entire spectrum. A forum / website / community on the other hand could certainly make an attempt, but knowing what I know about either subject I can't imagine the difficulty you are facing trying to compile it all in a manner that is easy to navigate, even without all the IT issues you have faced...

I commend and applaud the time, effort and money you have put into it so far. I think if it was me I would have gone completely insane long ago.

On behalf of brewers everywhere, and with apologies from IT folks everywhere, Thank You...

Really appreciate the above. Thanks for putting up with, let alone reading my full ramble . I also had some great emails arrive in the last few days. I'm very much looking forward to having a few beers and replying to all the above. Before then...

Rick: Don't worry, new site is just a far better vehicle to ensure that brewers have an easy path and great info from day one of their brewing career. If they move on to all-grain, then there will be a clear list of advantages, disadvantages and warnings before they "jump" down a path.I would imagine that this would end up with most becoming single-vessel all-grain brewers (pure BIAB / SVAG). However, there are a heap of existing multi-vessel brewers who have a lot of experience and knowledge from recipe creation right through to packaging. In hindsight, if they had the info we have now, maybe they would also have an SVAG set-up?

The main aim is to grab and distribute as much quality info as possible. We won't be diluting or compromising on quality advice, just making it more accessible to all forms of home craft brewers.

My insanity forces me to solve the email problems before relaxing and acknowledging the replies above and emails received properly. I have emails arriving okay to biabrewer.info at this point, the sending of them (the main thing) still doesn't seem to be working. When you do start getting email notifications (or by some miracle are already getting them) please let me know.

Thanks again, sincerely, for the re-fuel you provided above or in your emails. I had run out!
Pat

Okay, I've given up brewing as I am now a full-time server administrator

Haven't forgotten your posts above and emails that I'm looking forward to replying to but before then, need to knock a few things on the head. Please let me know what to add or change in the following list...

Email Notifications Fixed?

If you're reading this but aren't getting email notifications on topics you are subscribed to etc, please let me know (PM is fine). Also see For Your Entertainment below.

Time-Out Problems

Scott mentioned he is getting logged out regularly and I've noticed that as well. I'll check the session times tomorrow. I make them very generous however may have forgotten to change them. I also vaguely remember this problem happening before and they righted themselves within a day or so.

Editor

After submitting a post, spacing is often totally different from what was written. Important stuff but not sure on timing of fixing this.

Gold Members Only Forum

The Gold Members Only forum shows but when you click on it, it says the page isn't working. (Thanks for letting me know yettiman ). That'll be a phpBB thing that is really annoying. Fixed it once before but will need to refresh to recall the fix.

As mentioned above...For Your Entertainment
Thanks Microsoft! It turned out that it was just emails to Microsoft domains that were getting shafted (outlook, live, hotmail etc). Can't remember how many hours I spent on it yesterday. Today, I started at 6am and solved that problem at 2pm (over 12 hours ago!)

Anyway, in hindsight, the fix was easy. All I had to do was learn all about: DNS records such as A, CNAME, MX, TXT, PTR; phpmyadmin sql searches; Certbot; Base64; nsd; dig; TTL; SOA; SNDS; JMRP; SPF; aliases; and combine that with my recently acquired knowledge of: postfix; various .confs; Linux; apache2; phpBB; mySQL; puTTy; filezilla; notepad++; www-data and probably only about a thousand other things and, I was almost there!

The last steps simply involved: Googling a hundred thousand posts or so; attempting the suggestions; interpreting MS email that said, "Note: Errors are unlikely, however, if an error is indicated, please resubmit the specific IP or IP range."; more Googling etc., etc., etc.

What I Learned: After all that, what I learned is that it is a total comedy. For example, I could force email verification on this site for a person to register but, if the person wanting to register had some sort of MS account, they probably wouldn't even get the email verification email!!!